The Future of Innovative ‘Semiconductor Manufacturing AI’ from Amously [Challenge! K-Startup 2025]

Challenge! K-Startup is the largest startup competition in South Korea, jointly hosted by 10 government ministries. Among these, the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center operates the General Division of the Innovation Startup League. IT Dong-A takes a closer look at promising startups that have grown together with the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center.

“Receiving the Excellence Award feels almost undeserved, and instead gives us a stronger sense of responsibility. We were awarded not because we have already delivered tangible results, but because our future potential was highly evaluated. While we are happy, it also feels like encouragement—and a reminder—to perform even better. On the day of the award ceremony, all Amously employees celebrated and enjoyed the moment together. From now on, we are thinking about how we can live up to this recognition.”

On December 12, the largest startup competition in South Korea, ‘Challenge! K-Startup,’ hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Entrepreneurship Agency, with participation from 10 government ministries, local governments, and universities, concluded its extensive 10-month schedule. This year’s competition saw 7,377 teams compete, surpassing last year’s 6,238 teams. After passing through a total of 12 leagues, only 225 teams advanced to the integrated main round.

From there, following another round of evaluation, 15 teams were selected from each of the Pre-Startup League and the Startup League, and Amously won the Excellence Award. Among 7,377 companies, its technological capabilities and competitiveness were recognized. We met with Seungchoun Choi, CEO of Amously, to hear about the journey from applying to the Innovation Startup League to achieving this result.

Performing Advanced Semiconductor Process Control Tasks ··· Founded in August 2024

Seungchoun Choi, CEO of Amously, earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and is an industry expert who has worked in advanced manufacturing environments since 2003. At Hanwha, he worked as a production technology engineer for aerospace and defense components, and at Corning, he developed technologies to improve productivity in TFT-LCD display glass processing, particularly edge processing.

Since joining SK hynix in 2019, he designed and implemented Run-to-Run (R2R) semiconductor manufacturing process control algorithms, including adaptive model tuning and automatic updates using customized web applications. Through this work, he led improvements in process stability and yield by leveraging data-driven and machine learning technologies. Specifically, while applying data- and AI-based advanced process control (APC) to semiconductor mass production, he realized the limitations of conventional approaches in terms of stability and scalability. To implement a new process control architecture to address these challenges, he founded Amously.

Amously is developing an AI platform called Amfibian that supports real-time process control and optimization using semiconductor manufacturing process data. CEO Choi stated, “Although I studied manufacturing in school, I realized that it was difficult to apply what I learned academically in real-world production environments. From my very first job, I wanted to solve this problem. While advancing APC intelligence at SK hynix, I found an answer to this challenge. Coincidentally, SK hynix opened applications for its internal startup program ‘HiGarage’ in November 2023. I applied, was selected, and began the business in August 2024.”

What Is Amously’s Semiconductor APC-Supporting AI Platform ‘Amfibian’?

We asked how his experience at SK hynix led to the founding of Amously and what kind of service Amfibian provides. CEO Choi explained, “In semiconductor processes, recipes are optimized during the R&D stage, and during mass production, these recipes are tuned to ensure consistent quality and performance. Therefore, Run-to-Run processes are used to continuously optimize the results of previous runs and the conditions of subsequent executions, with APC fine-tuning process recipes each time.”

He continued, “Manufacturing a single type of semiconductor requires hundreds of processes, and each customer demands different designs and process conditions. Ultimately, responding to all requirements means needing different APC models for hundreds of thousands of cases, constantly changing them based on material or requirement variations. The problem is that this tuning process is still based on individual experience and know-how. Companies do not share this knowledge with each other, and even within a company, it is not widely disclosed. Amfibian builds this entire process into data, platformizes it, and automates it.”

CEO Choi compared advanced semiconductor process control to a franchise restaurant. He said, “A franchise restaurant has a fixed recipe, but the ingredients that arrive each day are different. Still, the chef must create a similar taste using slightly different ingredients each time, relying on their discretion. Semiconductor APC is similar. There is a base process recipe, and it is adjusted slightly each time to produce products with as consistent performance as possible. Automating this approach is the role of Amfibian.”

Amfibian can be applied to most Run-to-Run-based semiconductor processes except lithography. Lithography is excluded because it involves an extremely large number of parameters, requires different modeling approaches, and already operates highly advanced control systems within the equipment itself. In addition, Amfibian can be expanded beyond semiconductors to Run-to-Run-based processes in batteries, displays, as well as process-driven industries such as refining, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

“Seoul CCEI’s Innovation Startup League Is Open—Which Makes the Competition Intense”

Amously chose to submit its technology to the Seoul CCEI among the 12 leagues due to confidence in its technology and the flexibility of eligibility requirements. For example, leagues such as the Environmental League, Real Estate New Industry League, and Intellectual Property League are limited to companies within specific industries. In contrast, the Innovation Startup League (General) is open to both pre-startups and companies founded within the past three years. While this results in fierce competition, CEO Choi was confident. He also noted that Gorerobotics and Amberroad, which started as POSCO internal ventures, won the Grand Prize and Excellence Award respectively in Challenge! K-Startup, leading him to believe that Amously, as an SK hynix internal venture, would also be competitive.

CEO Choi said, “Our relationship with the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center began when we advanced to the main round of the Innovation Startup League. We are currently registered as a Seoul CCEI-incubated company and receive IR pitching consulting and investor mentoring support. In August, we were introduced to Hyundai Motor Securities through the Challenge! K-Startup 2025 Meetup Day, and another Innovation Startup League Partners Meetup Day is scheduled for late December. Since we have signed a cooperation agreement, we expect to receive support in various areas going forward.”

“I Believed Amously Would Rise as Semiconductor Attention Increased in the Second Half of the Year”

Regarding the background of winning the Excellence Award, CEO Choi said, “We stood out by focusing on the semiconductor field, and in particular by presenting a rare approach centered on semiconductor manufacturing AI. Anyone can propose an idea, but we turned it into reality and implementation. With experience at SK hynix, we have relevant know-how, and within one year of founding, we developed the idea into a minimum viable product (MVP). I believe we were highly evaluated for achieving tangible results within two years in a deep-tech industry.”

To those considering participation in 2026, CEO Choi advised, “I strongly recommend taking on the challenge. Early-stage startups need frequent investor presentations to raise awareness and attract funding. The Innovation Startup League allows you to practice IR pitching without 부담, and in some cases receive business evaluations. It helps with recruitment, external promotion, and preparation. Another advantage is that the prize money is not restricted like government grants tied to performance targets, allowing founders to use it at their discretion.”

All Goals Achieved This Year, 2026 Will Be a Year of ‘Support and Expansion’

From April to December, while progressing through Challenge! K-Startup, CEO Choi steadily achieved milestones. He summarized, “Our biggest goal this year was MVP development, which we have already completed, and we also achieved live demonstrations for potential customers. To communicate that Amously can address automation demands in semiconductor companies, we presented at the Korean Society of Cleaning Science and Technology and ICPT, the largest international conference in the CMP field. We were also selected for the Early Startup Package, IBK Changgong, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ TIPS program.”

However, he pointed out that improvements are needed regarding participation in government-supported manufacturing AI programs. CEO Choi emphasized, “Current AI support programs are divided into manufacturing AI and AI semiconductors. Since Amously focuses on semiconductor manufacturing AI, we do not fall clearly into either category. Manufacturing AI programs currently focus on SMEs, so companies like ours, whose demand-side customers are large enterprises, are excluded. I hope support measures will be expanded to include companies in these gray areas.”

Finally, Amously’s goals for next year are revenue generation and business expansion. CEO Choi concluded, “Next year, we must convert our MVP into actual revenue. We received investment last year, and now it’s time to prove ourselves with results. Rather than focusing on specific revenue figures, our goal is to have foundries and semiconductor manufacturers adopt our solution. Currently, we focus on CMP, but we also aim to expand into cleaning, deposition, and diffusion processes. We will concentrate on expanding use cases for Amfibian across more domains and increasing adoption examples.”

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